Paula Cole at the Troy River Street Festival, 6/19/10

TROY – It was a perfect, hot, sunny summer day for a street fest on Saturday, but the crowd for Troy’s annual River Street Festival didn’t seem to be as large as it was last year when Mike Doughty and Cracker played in the rain. Maybe it was just too hot. Or maybe it was because there was only one national act on the bill this year.

Or maybe it was simply because a lot of folks have forgotten who Paula Cole is.

And that’s understandable. She grabbed stardom by the horns in the mid-’90s. She won a Grammy Award as Best New Artist. Her song “I Don’t Want to Wait” was picked up as the theme song for the popular teen TV show, “Dawson’s Creek.” And “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” was a bona fide smash hit single. But 1999′s “Amen” album – the follow-up to her breakthrough 1996 album “This Fire” – failed to generate much airplay or sales. And since then, Cole has released only one other album – 2007′s jazz and bossa nova-flecked “Courage,” which clearly wasn’t aimed at the pop charts.

As she explained on Saturday, “I basically took an eight-year hiatus from my pop career.” But it was clear to everyone within earshot on Saturday that Paula Cole was positively thrilled to be back in front of an audience. As she sang in the opening, “Comin’ Down,” “Lord, make me an instrument to sing away the pain.”

Cole’s voice is indeed a magnificent instrument – a powerful, swooping voice that leaps octaves in a single breath, at once vulnerable and brimming over with undeniable strength. Drawing on such obvious influences as Joni Mitchell and Annie Lennox, Cole also taps into the old-school soul of Laura Nyro and wraps it all in her own unique free-spirited passion.

Dressed in snug, form-fitting black with a white flower tucked into her hair behind one ear, Cole wailed through a number of selections from her 1994 debut album, including “Happy Home” (with Cole impressing on the grand piano), “Watch the Woman’s Hands” (spiked with polyrhythmic handclapping) and the heart-stirring ballad “Dear Gertrude.”

Backed by drummer Tony Mason and multi-tasking guitarist Ben Butler (who played both the guitar and bass parts, as well as handling some discrete sampling chores), Cole naturally leaned heavily on material from “This Fire,” which made up more than one-third of her set-list. Wisely, she held “I Don’t Want to Wait” and Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” for the encore slots, but “Tiger” was surprisingly tough and funky, and “Me” was boldly defiant and determined.

Best of all, she showcased a couple of new songs, “Music in Me” and “Something I’ve Got to Say,” from her upcoming album, “Ithaca,” slated for release in September. Fortunately, they were as full of passion and melody as her very best early work. Paula Cole is on a serious comeback.

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The River Street Festival
Featuring Paula Cole
When: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, June 19
Where: Monument Square on River Street, Troy
Musical highlights: “Happy Home,” “I Believe in Love” and the final encore of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”
Upcoming: Next up on the Capital Region’s street festival calendar is Art On Lark, which takes place on Lark Street in Albany on Saturday, June 26. Admission is free.
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Greg Haymes is a freelance writer from the wilds of South Schodack.

Erin Harkes’ band was the real rocker of the day. Paula’s music is best enjoyed on your iPod while you’re sipping a latte in a Starbucks…alone. It was a little too subdued for a festival crowd like that. Definitely a buzzkill after Erin’s set.